The Northeastern baseball team used a four-run, two-out rally to defeat crosstown rival Boston College, 4-3, yesterday at frigid (40 degrees) Friedman Diamond yesterday.
Senior captain Brad Czarnowski keyed the rally, drilling a full-count changeup from Joe Martinez into the right-center gap. The ball kept rolling all the way to the 435-foot sign in centerfield for a two-run, stand-up triple. The drive scored Matt Morizio and Mike Steinberg to tie the game at three. Czarnowski came in for the eventual winning run on a wild pitch by relief pitcher Mike Gauthier.
“He started me out with curveballs away and down, and I was fortunate enough to get the count 3-2,” Czarnowski said. “He finally left the changeup up high and I turned on it.”
“From the start of the season to this point, Brad has done that (come up with the big hit) three or four times now,” said coach Neil McPhee. “That’s what you need from the captain of the team. He just ripped that ball, it was a shot.”
Steinberg got the Huskies (8-6 overall) on the board earlier in the inning by singling home Miguel Paquette with a hard single through the left side of the infield. Paquette started the rally with a triple to the same part of the field as Czarnowski.
Freshman Adam Ottavino got the start for Northeastern, and went six innings, with all three runs coming on a homerun by Garrett Greer. Ottavino left a curveball over the plate and the stocky catcher who deposited it just over the left field fence.
“He hung the curveball, no question and (Greer) is a big, strong kid and he caught it well,” McPhee said. “Ottavino shows signs of being an incredible prospect for this program. But he’s still got a ways to go, you can see he gave up a couple of hard hit balls today, and that’s the first time that happened to him (this year). It’s a tough day to throw your breaking ball and it wasn’t his best pitch today. He got by with his fastball, a change and an occasional breaking ball. But he’s just an exciting kid to have in the program.”
Jim Madison replaced Ottavino in the seventh inning, and picked his third win of the season with three innings of scoreless relief. The curveball specialist had more luck with the breaking stuff, allowing only two hits and striking out four.
The junior righty saved his best for the final pitch of the game, a 3-2 breaking ball that froze Drew Locke for the backwards K.
“(Pitching coach Greg) DiCenso made that (pitch) call from the dugout,” said Madison, who noted he also would have gone with the curve. “He has us throwing pitches in weird counts all year, so you definitely get used to it.”
“He’s a curveball pitcher, and he’s got ice in his veins,” McPhee said. “Jimmy is a veteran, he’s really coming into his own, he’s pitched well every time out this year. His curveball, change and sneaky fastball, he’s got them all working right now.”
With the Huskies at bat in the bottom of the eighth, closer Tim Bush began warming up on the sidelines, but McPhee decided it was Madison’s game to win.
“We talked about (bringing in Bush), and (Madison) did walk two hitters that inning,” McPhee said. “But he came back and got ahead of the next hitters, which is an indication that he’s not flustered. He’s doing what he’s supposed to be doing out there with pitch selection.”
The Huskies finished the week with a 2-1 record, having split a Saturday doubleheader with Harvard (a Sunday match up with the Crimson was canceled due to high winds).
Senior Jeff Heriot took the hill in the early game, a 3-1 Husky victory, and struck out 14 batters, one shy of his career record and his best performance this season. Classmate Paul Koslowski drove in a pair of runs with a solo homerun in the bottom of the seventh to tie the game at one, and a sacrifice fly in the eighth to give the Huskies some insurance.
Also in the seventh, Czarnowski plated Morizio for the go-ahead run with a single to left.
Heriot gave up only three hits in his 7.2 innings; the only run came from a solo homer by the Crimson’s Zak Farkes in the top of the seventh. Ottavino closed out the eighth and the ninth to pick up the first save of his collegiate career.
The Huskies could manage only four hits in the second game of the doubleheader, a 2-1 loss. Senior Jeff Heriot provided the only offense when he cranked a Trey Hendricks offering over the centerfield wall in the second.
NU hurler Jordan Thompson was perfect until the seventh (and last, because of the doubleheader) when a pair of runners scored when third strikes got by the backstop Morizio.
Most on the NU team felt the split against Harvard was an opportunity lost.
“(The win against BC) was the win we should have had Saturday,” McPhee said. “We came back and won this one in the way that we should have held on for the win (against Harvard).”
